Three Years
by xcaliginous
Summary: The development of Team 7 over the time jump years. Updated sporadically.
1. In the Mirror

**A/N:** Slight spoilers if you haven't read a few chapters where we oick up from after the timejump. I tried to fill in a few of the bits, I hope I did okay.  
**Disclaimer:** Kishimoto owns Team 7 and all other characters mentioned here.

Naruto had never seen Yondaime, being that Naruto's birthday coincided with Yondaime's deathday, but he had seen pictures. There was a portrait in the Hokage's office; he looked at it when he was supposed to be receiving missions. He'd been to Kakashi-sensei's apartment once and briefly peeked at his team picture. Ero-sennin never let on, but that old pervert was about as sentimental as a woman. He'd had a stack of pictures hidden away in one of his packs. There were at least three of Yondaime at various stages of growth.

Maybe Naruto's memory was fuzzy, maybe he'd taken one to many hits to the head. But even if his memory served false, mirrors never did. And ever single mirror he passed told him that he looked increasingly like the Yondaime. And, kami-sama, did it scare him.

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Sasuke never spent a particular amount of time on his appearance. When he was younger he purposefully made himself look as repellant as possible without being unhygienic in hopes that the hordes of females would leave him alone. But that was before he had left Konoha for sound. It was before Orochimaru had made him put on an abominable amount of make-up and face color and grow his hair out. It was before Sasuke had had a tremendous growth spurt that had left him at around five-foot-five. It was before the demented and backwards customs in Otokagure had left him seemingly more gaunt and pale by the day.

And maybe he was finally cracking, like his aniki had wanted him to, but he avoided mirrors like the plague. He had learned to put on any sort of make up without the use of one. So for the brief moment when he was caught unawares in front of a mirror, he pulled down his sleeves to hide the summoning tattoos and clenched his jaw. He was sure his tongue was the same as it had always been.

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Sakura had been the kind of young kunoichi who spent more time in front of her mirror than working on her kunai practice. When she found herself left behind by her teammates, she realized just what a foolish philosophy that had been. She went to Tsunade-sama and began training with her as a medic-nin. She learned about life. She learned about death. She learned how to deal out both. Sakura dealt with the complexities of poisons and the bluntness of an open gash. She became familiar with her chakra, down to the last ounce. And now she was learning strength she could almost meet Tsunade-sama blow for blow.

When Sakura looked in a mirror, she didn't see Tsunade-sama's pale yellow hair or golden eyes. She saw her own pink hair and green eyes. And maybe her slightly larger than average forehead. But Sakura knew that when Team 7 was Team 7 again, she was closer to matching her boys than she had ever been.


	2. When In Dreams

**Disclaimer:** Kishimoto owns them all. And possibly part of my soul.  
**A/N:** This actually makes me cringe a little. I like the end a bit, but the rest is bordering on third rate... But nonetheless, I'm not sure how to change it so here it is for now.

* * *

"Maa... When's Kakashi-sensei gonna get here? He's later than usual," Naruto said with a yawn. 

And with that Kakashi was perched on one of the bridge supports, "Yo."

"YOU'RE LATE!"

Kakashi waved them aside, "My last tissue got carried away in a gust of wind right before I sneezed so I had to chase after it. But that's not the point. I won't be able to train with you today, so you three get to work on your target practice. Ja!"

Just as suddenly as he had come, he was gone. Naruto frowned at this, he had been hoping to actually learn something new today.

"I bet he's only going to go read his pervy books," He said as he shuffled off the bridge.

Sasuke said nothing as he walked towards the training grounds with his hands in his pockets. Sakura, who inwardly agreed with Naruto, noticed and went to catch up to him.

The first hour went rather well. Each of them actually worked rather diligently at improving—or in Naruto's case, besting Sasuke. Then Naruto got bored and started idly chucking kunai and shuriken any which way he felt.

"Oi, dobe, if your aim were a little better I would actually think you were actually going for the target."

"Teme!" was all the warning there was before Naruto viciously pulled a weapon from the tree and threw it straight for Sasuke's head. Sasuke easily dodged and threw something back at Naruto.

It quickly escalated into a three way war when a deflected shuriken almost hit Sakura. It was almost sundown before the three agreed to stop. All of them were worn out and sported scrapes and cuts from the vicious battle. Sasuke stood bent over, supporting himself with the trunk of a tree. Naruto was sprawled out on the ground, breathing hard. Sakura sat with her knees bent at the base of another close by tree.

"Almost had you there, didn't I? Eh, Sasuke?" Naruto rasped out with a grin in Sasuke's general direction.

"Naruto! Don't say stupid stuff like that. I saw you almost get hit when you were up in that tree. And then you tried to cheat with kage bunshin!" Sakura turned to Sasuke, "Ne, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke picked his head up to look at her and opened his mouth to reply.

"Ssasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun, wake up," hissed a voice too raspy to be Sakura's and too deep to be Naruto's.

Sasuke's eyes flew open, sharingan wheeling. He saw blonde hair over a face wrapped in bandages. The lone uncovered eye crinkled into a look of amusement.

"We're going to be doing a little target practice today. You won't want to miss it." Orochimaru turned and exited the room, leaving Kabuto to close the door after him.

Sasuke supressed a shudder as he dragged a hand over his face. Since he was living in a nightmare he supposed it was enough that he didn't have to experience them when he was asleep too.

Sasuke supressed a pang of longing as he got dressed for the day. Power and defeating Itachi came first.

Later in the day, during training, Orochimaru's blonde hair became Naruto's blonde hair as Sasuke sent a senbon flying towards his neck.


End file.
